Part of CTC's Early Childhood Initiative, Early Bridges is an early childhood literacy program that uses storytelling and creative drama to promote language development and school readiness skills. Professional Teaching Artists partner with preschool teachers to deliver in-class sessions that include interactive storytelling, hands-on activities, puppets and a lot of unpredictable fun! Early Bridges combines the philosophies of the Children’s Theatre Company’s nationally acclaimed Neighborhood Bridges program with best practices in early childhood. According to the Center for Early Education and Development at the University of Minnesota, children who participated in EB showed an overall increase of 77% in the categories of storytelling quality, the grammatical complexity of their stories, and their theatre arts skills. The significance of these findings is supported by research that indicates that improvements in oral narrative skills improve children’s language skills and their readiness for school and success in elementary and middle school.